(1) Hebrews mererah, meaning "bitterness" (Job 16:13); i.e., the bile secreted in the liver. This word is also used of the poison of asps (20:14), and of the vitals, the seat of life (25).

(2.) Hebrews rosh. In Deuteronomy 32:33 and Job 20:16 it denotes the poison of serpents. In Hosea 10:4 the Hebrew word is rendered "hemlock." The original probably denotes some bitter, poisonous plant, most probably the poppy, which grows up quickly, and is therefore coupled with wormwood (Deuteronomy 29:18; Jeremiah 9:15; Lamentations 3:19). Comp. Jeremiah 8:14; 23:15, "water of gall," Gesenius, "poppy juice;" others, "water of hemlock," "bitter water."

(3.) Gr. chole (Matthew 27:34), the LXX. translation of the Hebrew rosh in Psalm 69; 21, which foretells our Lord's sufferings. The drink offered to our Lord was vinegar (made of light wine rendered acid, the common drink of Roman soldiers) "mingled with gall," or, according to Mark (15:23), "mingled with myrrh;" both expressions meaning the same thing, namely, that the vinegar was made bitter by the infusion of wormwood or some other bitter substance, usually given, according to a merciful custom, as an anodyne to those who were crucified, to render them insensible to pain. Our Lord, knowing this, refuses to drink it. He would take nothing to cloud his faculties or blunt the pain of dying. He chooses to suffer every element of woe in the bitter cup of agony given him by the Father (John 18:11).

Noah Webster's New International Dictionary of the English Language

1. (n.) The bitter, alkaline, viscid fluid found in the gall bladder, beneath the liver. It consists of the secretion of the liver, or bile, mixed with that of the mucous membrane of the gall bladder.

2. (n.) The gall bladder.

3. (n.) Anything extremely bitter; bitterness; rancor.

4. (n.) Impudence; brazen assurance.

5. (n.) An excrescence of any form produced on any part of a plant by insects or their larvae. They are most commonly caused by small Hymenoptera and Diptera which puncture the bark and lay their eggs in the wounds. The larvae live within the galls. Some galls are due to aphids, mites, etc. See Gallnut.

6. (v. t.) To impregnate with a decoction of gallnuts.

7. (v. t.) To fret and wear away by friction; to hurt or break the skin of by rubbing; to chafe; to injure the surface of by attrition; as, a saddle galls the back of a horse; to gall a mast or a cable.

8. (v. t.) To fret; to vex; as, to be galled by sarcasm.

9. (v. t.) To injure; to harass; to annoy; as, the troops were galled by the shot of the enemy.

10. (v. i.) To scoff; to jeer.

11. (n.) A wound in the skin made by rubbing.